Death Row Combat: Proof that Mike Tyson knocked Buster Douglas out in Tokyo 1990 - YouTube Death Row Combat: Proof that Mike Tyson knocked Buster Douglas out in Tokyo 1990 Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. The interactive transcript could not be loaded. Loading... Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Mar 3, 2013 via YouTube Capture Feb 11 1990: the night James Buster Douglas shocked world with Mike Tyson knockout - Telegraph Boxing Feb 11 1990: the night James Buster Douglas shocked world with Mike Tyson knockout Twenty years ago today, James 'Buster' Douglas caused one of the greatest sensations in boxing history when he knocked out former undisputed, undefeated world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson on a Tokyo night.

KO'd: James 'Buster' Douglas caused one of the sport's biggest upsets against Mike Tyson Photo: AP By Gareth A Davies, Boxing Correspondent 9:34AM GMT 11 Feb 2010 Tyson, the self-styled 'baddest man on the planet' was not called 'Iron Mike' for nothing. He was widely considered to be the best boxer anywhere in any division in the world, feared by opponents and having dominated the heavyweight division. He looked invincible, and his air of menace pervaded his every fight. The Mirage Casino, Las Vegas, had offered odds of 42-1 on Douglas winning the fight by some fluke. Yet, after ten rounds, the form cart was upturned. A right-left, right-left and Tyson was down. After taking great punishment from Douglas, Tyson was scrabbling around on the floor, looking for gumshield, not knowing where he was. Douglas was an enigmatic heavyweight, not highly motivated, but at 6ft 4ins and 230lbs, he came in against Tyson in peak condition. It was to be his night against Tyson. He used his size, strength, and determination to their full advantage.

Douglas had begun his boxing career in 1981. If 1990 was his zenith, then later that year, he made and lost his only defence of the heavyweight title - against Evander Holyfield. Douglas came into the fight weighing 241 pounds, 15 pounds heavier than in his Tyson fight. He was knocked out in the third round and decided to retire after the fight. Douglas finished his illustrious boxing career with a record of 38-6-1. Related Articles Mayweather-Mosley is official 03 Feb 2010 Douglas’s father had been a contender at middleweight and light heavyweight in the 1960s and 1970s, but had never quite made it. He pushed his son. Other things contributed to Douglas’s mindset on that night. In the early weeks of 1990, Buster's marriage to Bertha Paige was at an advanced stage of collapse and another woman, Doris Jefferson, the mother of his son, was lying seriously ill in hospital. His mother had passed away 23 days before the Tyson fight.

When they stepped into the ring that night in the Dome, Douglas seemed impervious to Tyson’s punches and power. Watching it, there was an air of an upset growing through the fight. We had been told that Douglas had no chance. He had been largely ignored in the pre-fight build up as the media fawned over Tyson. Yet in the fight, as it wore on, Tyson looked more and more confused. Unsettled, even. Douglas would not budge. Mid-way through the fight, Tyson’s left eye was also swollen. In the ninth, the two fighters traded. Tyson was putting it all on the line. Then, in the tenth, Douglas lands a four-punch combination - right, left, right, left - that floors the champion. Tyson is pawing at his gumshield on all fours, and one minute 23 seconds into the tenth round, is counted out. When Douglas fought Holyfield later that year, he was paid $24 million. He was put down in the third and stopped. He admitted later his mind was not in the right place.

Douglas ballooned to 25st, came back six years later, won eight of nine fights, but his heart was never in it. He tried all manner of careers, even attempting an acting career in a sci-fi movie which flopped three years ago - in which he played a detective. There was only one night in history, 20 years ago, when his heart was truly in it. The night he beat 'the baddest man on the planet' - Mike Tyson. From the Vault: Mike Tyson is knocked out by 42–1 underdog Buster Douglas | Sport | The Guardian From the Vault From the Vault: Mike Tyson is knocked out by 42–1 underdog Buster Douglas Mike Tyson entered the ring at 9am on 11 February 1990 as the undefeated heavyweight champion of the world. After 10 rounds with Buster Douglas he was lying on the canvas wondering if God had punished him for his magnificence Buster Douglas stands over Mike Tyson after knocking him down in the 10th round of their fight in February 1990.

Photograph: Sipa Press / Rex Features Wednesday 11 February 2015 06.59 EST Last modified on Monday 4 April 2016 09.45 EDT Share on Messenger Close “On January 8, 1990, I got aboard a plane to fly to Tokyo. Kicking and screaming. I didn’t want to fight; all I was interested in then was partying and fucking women.” And so begins Mike Tyson’s recollections of one of the most famous upsets in the history of sport. Most bookmakers refused to take bets for the fight. The Mirage, the only casino in Las Vegas willing to offer odds to punters, rated Douglas as a 42-1 underdog. They didn’t seem to care about making money from anyone stupid enough to back Douglas, but even the most punch-drunk gamblers in Vegas would have avoided those teasing odds. If they had known more about Tyson’s lax preparations, they might have stumped up a few more dollars. “I didn’t consider Buster Douglas much of a challenge,” remembers Tyson. “I didn’t even bother watching any of his fights on video.

I had easily beaten everybody who had knocked him out.” Not only did Tyson not bother to watch Douglas in action, but he barely trained for the fight, bar a few sparring sessions with Greg Page. Ever on the make, Don King saw a way to earn an extra buck or two out of Tyson in the build-up to the fight and opened one of the sessions to the public, charging $60-a-head for a two-round showcase in the gym. Page gave Tyson such a runaround that King had to drag his man out of the ring after a single round, shooing the paying public out of the gym. Tyson ignored the warning signs, deeming Douglas “not worth sweating for”. He was sleepwalking into the most unpredictable defeat in history. Pinterest Mike Tyson on his way down. Photograph: Colorsport/REX Tyson had no interest in sparring, but he built up a sweat with the local women.

David Haye famously refrained from sex for six weeks before his fights, explaining his reticence with the mantra: “Find a lion that hasn’t had some food for a while, and you’ve got a dangerous cat.” Tyson saw things differently: “Besides having sex with the maids, I was seeing this young Japanese girl who I had had sex with the last time I was in Japan. Robin [his wife] would go out shopping and I would go downstairs to the back of the hotel where this young girl had a room... So that was my training for Douglas.” Tyson was nonchalant about the fight but he was determined to make the weight. Having arrived in Japan 30 pounds too heavy, he had bet King that he could slim down on time. On the eve of the fight, he weighed in at a respectable 220 pounds, pocketed his bonus and looked to make merry: “The day before the fight I also had two maids at the same time. And then two more girls, one at a time, the night before the fight.” Tyson is under no illusions about his complete failure to turn up for the fight: “It wasn’t the usual Tyson going into the ring.

It was obvious to anyone who was watching that I really didn’t want to be there. The fight started and I fought horribly.” By the end of the fifth round, his left eye was in bad shape. He went back to his corner to discover that his team hadn’t bothered to bring an ice pack or any endswell to relieve the pain and reduce the bulge. They filled up a latex glove – “what looked like an extra-large condom with ice water” – and held it against his podgy face. It didn’t work. The one-eyed Tyson trudged back into the centre of the ring, where he traded punches and expended more energy for a couple of rounds. Things were looking ominous by the eighth, but then he threw a trademark upper-cut with his right and knocked Douglas off his feet. That should have been it. No defeat. No surrender . No upset. No humiliation. No consequences for treating the fight with a haughty disrespect and ignoring the merits of an opponent who had nothing to lose and everything to gain. But the timekeeper was Japanese and the referee was Mexican, and they couldn’t understand each other well enough to count to 10 together.

Douglas was given a few extra seconds of grace and was able to pull himself back on to his feet. Two rounds later he was the heavyweight champion of the world. Pinterest Buster Douglas stands over knocked out Mike Tyson in the 10th round. Photograph: Sadayuki Mikami/AP Tyson went back to his hotel room but there was no maid to console him and he was no longer the champ. He told himself that he was robbed but also wondered if his sheer domination of his fellow man had irked the Almighty: “I knew that God didn’t pick on any small animals, that lightning only struck the biggest animals, that those are the only ones that vex God. Minor animals don’t get God upset. God has to keep the big animals in check so they won’t get lofty on their thrones. I just lay on my bed and thought that I had become so big that God was jealous of me.” While Tyson asked himself if he had become bigger than Jesus, Douglas set about making some money. He eschewed the rematch with Tyson and instead picked up $24m for fighting Evander Holyfield. Tyson has always maintained that, while Douglas boxed manfully in Tokyo, his victory was essentially a fluke.

Douglas seemed intent on proving him right when he faced Holyfield. The fight was over within three rounds. Douglas sucked up punches for the first two rounds without throwing anything of note. Then he hit Holyfield with a decent shot at the start of the third, became a little too giddy and started going after shots. Midway through the round he threw a sluggish uppercut that only succeeded in throwing himself off balance and giving Holyfield a shot. The challenger did not hold back. Holyfield stuck his right fist firmly into his opponent’s face, knocking him out for the next five minutes and securing The Ring, WBA, WBC and IBF belts in the process. Holyfield had settled for $8m of the purse – only a third of what Douglas was paid – but he had earned the right to be called the champ. Things were never the same for Tyson after his first defeat. His belts were passed around the heavyweight division during the early 1990s as he went to prison and then fought his way back into contention.

He won back the WBC and WBA titles in 1996, but on that February day at the start of the decade, he had to be content with lying on a Tokyo hotel bed and challenging his maker. The preview Matthew Engel travelled to Tokyo in February 1990 to witness another easy victory for the champion. Or so he thought. Tyson’s career needs the unthinkable: a defeat By Matthew Engel on 10 February 1990 Think of the great upsets of heavyweight boxing history – James J Braddock beating Max Baer, Muhammad Ali beating Sonny Liston, Leon Spinks beating Ali – put them together and double them, and you might get somewhere close to the consternation that would be caused if James Douglas should happen to beat Mike Tyson in Tokyo tomorrow. If Douglas looks carefully round his hotel suite, he will find near the Gideon Bible a slim volume entitled How to Cope with Potential Disaster. It deals with fire, earthquake and other everyday hazards. There is no advice about how to cope if set upon by 16-odd stone of extreme meanness. What advice can anyone give except “don’t do it”?

Douglas, by all accounts, is an upright, technically correct, even stylish sort of boxer. But no one can find anything in his record (29 wins, four defeats) that suggests he has a possibility of doing anything against Tyson, who has yet to find another individual with gloves on capable of being more than mildly irritating. There is some evidence, based especially on his performance against Tony Tucker, that Douglas’s courage is suspect. Yet that is the quality he will require above everything else. Theoretically Douglas will have considerable advantages of weight, reach and height. He is about five inches taller than Tyson, yet he would have a similar height advantage if he were being set upon by a tiger. Carl Williams, Tyson’s last opponent, was a similar sort of height. He lasted 93 seconds. No one will offer odds on this contest. Douglas, despite being one of the world’s 10 leading heavyweights, seems to have as much chance of beating Tyson as a sumo wrestler does of riding the St Leger winner. Pinterest Mike Tyson becoming the youngest heavyweight champion ever in 1986. Photograph: Douglas C Pizac/AP This is a measure of the mess in which the promoter Don King finds himself.

He has a champion who ought to be the greatest money maker boxing has known. Tyson is the only fighter under 30 that anyone in the United States, outside the fancy, has even heard of. But he is so much better than everyone else that he defeats the object of the exercise. The next defence is already signed and sealed without so much as an if or but about Douglas winning. Tyson is due to fight again at Atlantic City on June 18 against Evander Holyfield. (“Is that a name,” as Bill Shankly once enquired when introduced to a reporter with a difficult moniker, “or an address?”). Holyfield is unbeaten and can be presented, with a small leap of the imagination, as a worthy opponent, so the fight is just about promotable within the US. Beyond that, there is really only absurdity. Plans include Tyson versus 42-year-old George Foreman, which will make a lot of people money and a lot of other people sick Tyson versus a professional wrestler such as Hulk Hogan or geographical gimmicks of the Rumble in the Jungle sort Tyson at the Berlin Wall, in Beijing, or on the moon if King can find a co-operative local co-promoter.

The crazy thing is that for Tyson defeat would now constitute a good career move. The Japanese, on his second visit, no longer find him much of a novelty. The £600 seats have gone, to people who are less interested in seeing than in being seen, but the £20 seats remain slow-moving. Twenty quid is hardly more than the cost of a cup of coffee in Tokyo, but you can make that last longer than 93 seconds. Tyson is still big news here. The sports papers, the equivalent of our tabloids, splashed his boorish performance at the press conference on Thursday with pictures of him wearing his Walkman while supposedly answering questions. The headlines were “Tyson Was Arrogant” and “Sullen, Disgruntled Champion” and one paper talked of him using ‘an extremely vile expression which should not be used to women”. Rather touchingly, they did not take it personally: “Tyson took a hostile pose but he was kind to the Japanese reporters and only replied seriously to their questions ...

there is no love lost between Tyson and the US reporters, but to the Japanese he acted like a clean-cut college boy.” There is even a local rumour that Tyson wants to buy a house here. My interpretation is that the champion is indeed sullen and disgruntled. Apart from that being his natural mien, the main reason is that after several weeks cooped up in Tokyo, trudging through the streets at 3am to avoid the crowds and the fumes, he is bored out of his brain. If he decides to demolish Douglas quickly, it will probably be an attempt to get an early plane out. But the Japanese seem to have got used to having all these very large men strutting round the place. One member of the Tyson entourage is a little different: John Halpin, hypnotherapist by appointment to King Mike, is a professorial, apparently gentle sort of soul. He explained his theories to me. “If you can think instead of being disabled with emotion, then you win. What I do helps him be less emotional and more vicious.” More vicious? Ye gods.

The fight Buster Douglas v Mike Tyson The report Engel, like everyone else on the planet, had expected to see a few minutes of fearsome boxing from Tyson and a fifth defeat for Douglas. But now he had a story on his hands. World crown slips from a giantkiller’s fists By Matthew Engel on 12 February 1990 Outside the Tokyo Dome, the scene of yesterday’s amazing fight between Mike Tyson and James “Buster” Douglas, there is a fairground ride which turns customers upside down and back again, at terrifying speed, leaving them exhilarated, dazed and rather sick. It was the most appropriate motif for heavyweight boxing on a day that was both sensational and, even by the sport’s usual standards, utterly shameless. For five hours, the unheralded Douglas was undisputed heavyweight champion of the world after knocking out the unbeaten and apparently unbeatable Tyson in the 10th round. It was, everyone agreed, the shock of the century. But it was a result that could not be allowed to happen. Six hours after Tyson and Douglas climbed into the ring, the men who control boxing returned to the Dome to forbid it. In the eighth round, Douglas had been knocked down and should have been counted out.

Added to everything, we had a reprise of boxing’s greatest controversy: the “long count” from the Dempsey-Tunney fight of 1927. Pinterest Tyson before the seventh round. Photograph: Michael Brennan/Getty Images The referee, Octavio Meyran from Mexico, publicly recanted while the rulers of the sport looked on. There was Jose Sulaiman of the World Boxing Council, there was Gilberto Mendoza of the World Boxing Association and, most important of all, there was the promoter, Don King. Sulaiman said he no longer recognised any champion; Mendoza evaded the question but implied he felt the same. Both organisations will meet the WBC on 20 February, to try to sort out the chaos. Fat chance. The International Boxing Federation, which was not represented in Tokyo, said Douglas was now their champion. So the heavyweight division is back in the confusion from which Tyson rescued it. Tyson was also on the platform. In one sense, he was the day’s undisputed loser. Douglas was such a no-hoper, Las Vegas refused to take bets. The only arguments were about where exactly Tyson ranked alongside Joe Louis, Marciano and Ali.

Now he is just another battered bruiser. The fight belonged to Douglas. He out-thought and out-fought his opponent from start to finish. Tyson was wearing dark glasses to cover his puffy left eye and sucked on a towel rather pitifully. He spoke softly and pleadingly: “I believed I dropped him with a pretty decent shot and he went down and the referee had counted him out. You guys know me. I never cried or bitched about anything. Forgive my French. I’m just asking for a fair chance. I can handle a loss. I just want to lose fairly.” Whatever happened to the swearing, snarling Tyson of the pre-fight press conference? Indeed, whatever happened to Tyson, the great champion? The officials watched the re-run dozens of times and showed it to the press five more. Douglas was down for between 12 and 13 seconds. The referee had picked up the count when the timekeeper reached four but he started at one. “I’d like to recognise my mistake because rules are rules,” said Meyran. “I started my personal count and I mistook.” But when did sporting results get overturned because the referee made a mistake?

His word is meant to be law even when he is wrong, and the dressing-room lawyers quickly turned up examples of the WBC and WBA upholding this principle. The Douglas camp maintained that their man was judging his return to the vertical while the referee counted. “He acted like a great pro,” said John Russell, the cornerman. “He listened to the count of the referee. He was fine. He winked at me during the count.” Russell could have added that had his man been hard done by, the odds against Sulaiman, Mendoza and King meeting to reverse the verdict were even greater than the original odds against Douglas. Pinterest Buster Douglas floors Tyson. Photograph: Sipa Press / Rex Features But by last night people seemed to have lost interest in the legend of lunch-time. Douglas was just making everyone’s financial planning very complicated. So it had better be recorded now that, those 12 seconds apart, he was totally Tyson’s master. He punched tellingly, then moved out of range. Tyson just lumbered around. When he moved in, he did so primarily to wrestle. It was a wretched and baffling performance. Tyson has had no obvious booze-and-broads distractions in Tokyo, the very opposite.

A culprit will have to be found, and it may well be Jay Bright, the inexperienced trainer brought in when Kevin Rooney was sacked a year ago. Douglas’s small-town team from Columbus, Ohio, outsmarted the Tyson mob. At first it appeared the champion was merely starting sleepily: circling slowly, hitting his opponent with his killer eyes. First, 91 seconds passed and 93, the length of two of Tyson’s three previous fights, and nothing had happened. Then Douglas landed a couple of rights, probably just enough to shade the round. But no one was much worried. Early in the second, Tyson connected with a bearish left and Douglas winced. Ah-ha, we thought. But back he came, and after one punch a short right hook Tyson’s knees wobbled a fraction. In the corner afterwards, Bright began talking very fast indeed. The third round was about even. But in the fourth and fifth, Douglas kept connecting. Tyson could do nothing. His eye started to close.

The huge, half-full stadium was eerily quiet the silence broken only by the cries of Douglas’s small claque: “He didn’t come to fight.” In the seventh, a point Tyson had reached in only six of his 37 previous bouts, the champion finally roused himself. There was a hard left then a combination. But Douglas only smarted. Then he moved out of trouble again. And in the eighth he swept back. Two rights from Douglas hit home. Suddenly, the champion was on the ropes it appeared to be all over, and then, as if from a hole in the ground, it came: a right uppercut that landed flush on his tormenter’s chin. It was Douglas who went down. When the count failed to come, many of us assumed the fight had already been stopped. Next, we thought at least this was the turn of the tide, and that Douglas was finished. But, in the ninth he surged onwards suggesting he might indeed have winked when he was down. Again, Tyson was on the ropes. Any other man would surely have crumpled. Bright, by now, was simply open-mouthed. And by the next round the unbelievable had become the inevitable.

Right, right, left, right, left. After 83 seconds, Tyson was down and out. Amid the shambles in the ring, a Japanese official, as usual, read out a lengthy statement. On local TV, a Toyota ad with the slogan ‘ Tyson Power’ that had been running all day suddenly disappeared. Then the MC announced ‘the new heavyweight champion of the world, James ‘Buster’ Douglas’. ‘This is a great day for boxing,’ someone near me said. But it wasn’t. Pinterest Tyson is held up by one of his entourage after the fight. Photograph: Michael Brennan/Getty Images After the fight we found out about the judges. On the nine finished rounds, the American judge had Douglas ahead 88-82, one Japanese judge scored it level 86-86, the other Japanese judge had Tyson ahead 87-86. No one with half a brain never mind a knowledge of boxing could have had Tyson ahead. But the steal was already on the cards, their cards. Douglas, however, is a man with perspective.

He has known terrible tragedy in his life: his brother shot himself, his mother died recently, the mother of his son, Lamar, is critically ill, he is estranged from his current wife and from his father Bill, who was displeased by his apparent lack of courage when he fought Tony Tucker. That at least he has nailed once and for all. Courage? The man is drenched in it. Tyson is a born-again Christian, but not so as anyone would notice. Douglas is deadly serious: he thanked Jesus several times and dedicated the fight to his mother. ‘I want to be a people’s champion. I want to be a champion for the Lord Jesus Christ.’ Back in the headquarters hotel everyone was as dazed as Tyson . ‘That son of a bitch had it coming to him for a hell of a long time,’ said a drunk. Trevor Berbick, Tyson ‘s sparring partner, was at his most enigmatic. ‘God is not sleeping,’ he said, ‘and justice must prevail.’ ‘Today, Trevor,’ said an American boxing writer wearily, ‘I’d believe anything.’ But whose justice? Don King was not sleeping. He was said to be on his feet protesting after the long count.

Most of the day, however, he was unusually quiet in public. The Douglas camp have contractual ties to his organisation, which has sewn up heavyweight boxing. But relations were very strained before all this. Tyson is King’s banquet ticket Douglas was only supposed to be the hors d’oeuvre. Pinterest James “Buster” Douglas shows off his new WBC heavyweight belt at the Columbus airport on 12 February 1990. Photograph: Timothy E Black/AP Tyson has already signed to meet the No1 contender, Evander Holyfield, in Atlantic City in June. There was a get-out clause, which no one expected to invoke, substituting Douglas for Tyson. But Sulaiman said a Tyson-Douglas rematch, if there is no result, would be mandatory. Now the Holyfield camp is livid. “It’s bullshit,” said his handler Dan Duva. “If we have to, we’ll go to court.” Maybe the only way out is for Douglas, Holyfield and Tyson to meet in the same ring. Otherwise, the lawyers could take everyone’s money. In the meantime, this has brought out a little humility in almost everyone.

Last night, Douglas was undaunted but could not quite sound arrogant: “I know and the world knows who the champion is today. What more can I do but knock him out? I’m not worried about the politics. It will work itself out.” Tyson was almost humble too: “I had him out before he had me out. But the easiest part of all is winning. We all lose in life, we lose in love. I’m pretty much a decent character, I can handle it. I tell you, my friend, greater fighters than I have lost.” A lot of journalists and experts were thoughtful too. Some claimed they knew all along that Tyson was a myth, but I never heard them say so on Saturday. The only man believed to have predicted the result was Tim May of the Columbus Despatch which just happens to be Douglas’s local paper. The last word Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson, 25 years ago on Feb. 11, in Tokyo | FOX Sports More Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson, 25 years ago on Feb. 11, in Tokyo Buster Douglas and Mike Tyson had a date in Tokyo on Feb. 11, 1990, that wound up changing sports history.

Tony Duffy Feb 10, 2015 at 11:35a ET 0 Shares Twenty-five years ago, Mike Tyson was the baddest man on the planet. And then Tokyo happened. Feb. 11 marks 25 years since the unthinkable: Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson, who was the undisputed and unstoppable heavyweight champion. Tyson, who entered the ring 37-0 with 33 KOs, was beyond feared. His opponents were believed to have lost fights before the opening bell. He brought that kind of intimidation into the ring. In the opposite corner was James "Buster" Douglas, a 42-1 Vegas underdog. No one would have blamed him for not having his mind in the fight, either, as his marriage to Bertha Paige was falling apart. Doris Jefferson, the mother of his son, was in a hospital, and the Ohio fighter’s mother had passed away 23 days before the bout. In other words, this was another opportunity for the 23-year-old Tyson to pound an opponent into oblivion. But Douglas didn’t go away early as so many of Tyson’s foes had. He managed to create swelling near Tyson’s left eye.

"There was no doubt in my mind that I could do it," Douglas told boxinginsider.com in 2010. "I felt very confident. It was one of the most confident days going to a fight in my career. I always knew I had the ability; that’s why I did it. So I knew I had the tools to do it. It was just sorting a few things out along the way to becoming champion." As the bout wore on, Douglas’ confidence grew and Tyson no longer was the feared bully. A Tyson knockdown of Douglas in the eighth round did little to deter the 29-year-old challenger. In the 10th round, Douglas dropped the champ with a four-punch combination. One minute and 23 seconds into the round, referee Octavio Meyran counted out the formerly unstoppable Tyson. The world turned after that fight for all three men in the ring. What became evident after the stunning upset was Tyson had fallen victim to a wild lifestyle. The champ’s world was coming apart at every turn. His marriage to then-wife Robin Givens was falling apart publicly, as interviews with Barbara Walters and Oprah Winfrey exposed their troubles.

He was without longtime mentor Cus D’Amato, the stabilizing force in an unstable world, who had died in 1985. He did return to his victorious ways against Alex Stewart, Henry Tillman and Donovan "Razor" Ruddock. Tyson fought Ruddock twice in 1991, the first time winning on a controversial stoppage, and then pounding him in a 12-round unanimous decision. Still, the aura of invincibility was gone. And his lifestyle was getting the best of him. Then, in July 1991, Tyson was arrested for the rape of 18-year-old beauty pageant contestant Desiree Washington. Tyson was convicted and sent to prison on a six-year sentence; he was released after three years. Meanwhile, Douglas also strayed from the hard work and dedication that had brought him the title. His reign was short-lived as Evander Holyfield took the belt by knocking out Douglas in October 1990, after Douglas came into the ring 15 pounds heavier than when he downed Tyson. Douglas fought for nine more years but never again was a contender.

The other man in the ring in Tokyo, Meyran, had reffed major bouts prior to the heavyweight encounter, including Sugar Ray Leonard-Roberto Duran in 1980, the "No Mas" fight. Meyran returned to his native Mexico, where he still lives today as a successful businessman. In many ways, the downfall of Tyson, a larger-than-life figure in the sport, can be tied to the descent of boxing in the years since. A sport that once captivated fans with its glamour, ferocity and star power has faded from the mainstream, having to settle for a couple transcendent events a year. The day James "Buster" Douglas shook the world The day James "Buster" Douglas shook the world The day Douglas shook the world play Making The Rounds: 25th Anniversary Of Douglas/Tyson (5:51) Todd Grisham, Brian Campbell and Dan Rafael look back the Buster Douglas' 10th-round knockout over Mike Tyson in Tokyo.

(5:51) 2013 BWAA Nat Fleischer Award winner for excellence in boxing journalism ESPN.com boxing writer since 2005 Five years at USA Today comment Although 25 years have passed since James "Buster" Douglas' absolutely shocking, 10th-round knockout of heretofore indestructible Mike Tyson on Feb. 11, 1990 at the Tokyo Dome, it still resonates all these years later with those who remember it. It's a good bet that those who watched it can tell you exactly where they were and what their reaction was when the unimaginable happened. "I have worked more than 500 boxing telecasts in my HBO career and to this day I don't recall any moment when those of us producing a fight were for one brief second caught up in this moment of disbelief," said HBO Sports executive producer Rick Bernstein, who was in Tokyo working in the production truck as an associate director on the telecast. "As producers, we're taught to stay focused and not get caught up in the moment. "For those of us who had covered Tyson for several years, this was a shock.

I remember hearing over my headset and through the walls of our production unit people yelling something like, 'Oh my god!'" Not only was it a great fight, but it is widely hailed as the biggest upset in boxing history and one of the greatest upsets in sports history as the little-known Douglas, a good fighter with the reputation as a quitter, stood up to the bully to become a real-life Rocky, a 42-1 underdog who slayed Godzilla in front a quiet, Japanese crowd that expected a big Tyson knockout, which had become so routine but was still so exciting. Don King, the high-haired promoter, handled both fighters but certainly had more interest in a Tyson victory than one by Douglas. He was as shocked as anyone, especially since he was the person who made the fight. "Everybody was shocked. So was I," King said, sounding as though he still had a hard time believing the upset actually happened. "It always kept me humble to know this can happen. It was like a soul-searching thing. It was unbelievable, but this is something that can happen. It is one of the biggest upsets in sports history. "It falls into the pantheon of the great upsets, right up there near the top.

I also did 'The Rumble In The Jungle.' You had Muhammad Ali beating George Foreman in another big upset with a billion people watching. You have fights like that, you have Tyson and Douglas. This great sport of boxing can deliver that magic." The Boston Herald's Ron Borges, a longtime boxing writer, was with the Boston Globe at the time when he was one of six American journalists who made the trip to Tokyo to cover the fight, which took place on Sunday morning in Tokyo to accommodate the live Saturday night HBO broadcast in the United States. Borges will never forget what he witnessed. Don King, center, promoted both fighters but said he never expected Douglas to beat Tyson. AP Photo/Sadayuki Mikami "It was a stunning event -- not simply the victory, but the way Tyson went down, with his mouthpiece shooting up like Mount Vesuvius," said Borges, who had an inkling of what might eventually happen midway through the fight. "I remember calling my desk around the fifth round to tell them, 'Not sure how this will end, but right now Tyson is getting his ass kicked, so you may want to keep the front [page] available,'" Borges said.

"Amazing week and amazing morning." Tyson was just 23 at the time and the most feared fighter in the world. He was a knockout machine who didn't look like he could be stopped, and certainly not by Douglas, a decent-enough contender with a record of 29-4-1 with 19 KOs. But Douglas' heart and work ethic were in serious question, especially after a 1987 bout against Tony Tucker, whom he had faced for a vacant belt. Although Douglas was winning on the scorecards after nine rounds, he quit in the 10th round. So there was no chance he would be able to deal with Tyson's relentless pressure, right? Oh, so wrong. "That's a good fight. I don't take it personal. I've watched it," Tyson told ESPN.com in a 2011 interview. "I missed him with some bombs, but Buster was hurting me and he was moving pretty good. He did an awesome job. He did a great job. That was my bravest fight, one of my best fights. I took that beating like a man." Said King, "I didn't think Buster would beat Tyson. If I said that I'd be telling a lie.

But did he have a chance because he got the opportunity? In boxing, yesterday's nobody can become tomorrow's somebody. The man who wants it the most is going to come home with it. He had the will to win." Coming into the fight, Tyson was 37-0 with 33 KOs and had made nine title defenses. Many thought he was on his way to becoming the greatest heavyweight champion ever. But all was not well. Tyson had gone through messy splits with wife Robin Givens and manager Bill Cayton. He had split with longtime trainer Kevin Rooney in favor of less experienced Aaron Snowell and Jay Bright. Tyson also was becoming increasingly difficult to handle and was slacking off in training. In a sign of what was to come, Tyson was knocked down by former heavyweight titlist Greg Page in sparring before the fight. "Nobody could beat Tyson but himself, and he beat himself," King said. "He was so unbeatable, and everyone believed that and supported that theory that he strayed away from what had made him champion. He fell short there because he began to believe his own headlines.

He took this guy lightly." Still, Tyson was expected to blow through Douglas, like most opponents, including Tony Tubbs, whom he squashed in two rounds in 1988 on his first trip to Tokyo. The Douglas fight was simply meant to be a quick way to pocket an easy $6 million payday on the way to the really big money, as Tyson already had signed to face Evander Holyfield that summer in Atlantic City, New Jersey. What Tyson and the rest of the world didn't know was that this was not the same Douglas who had underachieved for so long and who had quit against Tucker. This was a 29-year-old Douglas who was motivated and focused because of three serious personal struggles he was facing. First, Douglas was heartbroken over the death of his mother, who passed away less than a month before the fight. Also, the mother of Douglas' then-11-year-old son, Lamar, was seriously ill. Douglas had also recently separated from his wife. "The man's mother died, and he turned that into the focus of his dedication and commitment," King said. "You prepare to succeed or you prepare to fail.

Buster Douglas prepared to succeed, Tyson failed to prepare to succeed." Instead of allowing the problems to cloud his mind, Douglas channeled that energy into the fight. "Nothing compares to these last few months in the life of James Douglas," he told reporters in the days leading to the fight. "It [the problems] is a motivation, not a distraction." Douglas looked good from the outset as he pushed Tyson back and took his best shots. However, Tyson was still giving it his all despite badly swelling eyes, which his rookie corner had no idea how to handle. Douglas, right, got up from the canvas in Round 8 to stop Tyson in the 10th, in one of the biggest upsets in boxing history. AP Photo/Sadayuki Mikami In the eighth round, Tyson finally found the power and dropped Douglas. But Douglas was more mad than hurt, slapping the canvas because he was disgusted with himself for getting nailed. Referee Octavio Meyran picked up the count from the timekeeper and began counting as a clear-eyed Douglas paid close attention before calmly rising at nine, moments before the end of the round. After the fight, Meyran's count would become the focal point of a major controversy.

Tyson and King asserted that his count was too long -- at least 12 seconds -- and that Tyson should have been declared the winner. To this day, King still blames Meyran for a supposed long count he believes cost Tyson the fight. "That was heck of a fight, but Tyson won that fight, and I had both fighters," King said. "When that man made the long count, that hadn't happened since [Jack] Dempsey-[Gene] Tunney [in 1926]. The ref was in shock and he lost the count. It was the referee's fault, but it was one of those things that happened. But Mike would have won without the long count." The WBC and WBA initially withheld recognition of Douglas as champion pending an "investigation." Only the IBF immediately recognized the new champion. The American press contingent made a stink about the so-called controversy. "I think it's fair to say had there not been six American boxing writers there, [King] would have got away with it, as Japanese press were all but mute as he ranted," Borges said. "'First knockout totally obliterated the second knockout,' King hollered.

To which I said, 'Don, there was no first knockout.' I also told the WBA official in charge that only a few months [earlier] they'd ruled Marlon Starling lost his [welterweight] title despite being hit with a punch four to five seconds after the bell because 'the referee is the final arbiter in the ring.' I asked him, 'Do the WBA rules apply in Japan or only in American casinos?'" The bogus long-count argument was vilified around the world, and eventually the sanctioning organizations relented a few days later. The reason they did so came in the 10th round, when Douglas finally floored a fading, swollen Tyson with a brutal, five-punch flurry. The image is indelible: A badly disoriented Iron Mike Tyson on all fours, groping for his dislodged mouthpiece as Meyran counted him out at 1 minute, 23 seconds. "I will never forget [director] Marc Payton's shot from the ringside handheld camera of Tyson crawling around the ring trying to pick up his mouthpiece," Bernstein said.

"That moment will remain forever as an iconic image in the history of boxing." And with that, the mystique of the untouchable, invincible "Baddest Man on the Planet" had been shattered, a moment in time that remains as shocking 25 years later as it was on that quiet Tokyo morning. Remembering The Day When Mike Tyson Was Knocked Out By James 'Buster' Douglas - ThePostGame.com Remembering The Day When Mike Tyson Was Knocked Out By James 'Buster' Douglas Share Post Email February 11, 1990: Mike Tyson was the undisputed heavyweight king of boxing, having successfully defended his title nine times. He held the WBC, WBA, and IBF titles. He was 37-0 and had never really been challenged. And then he ran into 42-1 underdog James "Buster" Douglas (29-4-1) at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. What happened next is best put by commentator Jim Lampley's words: "Let's go ahead and call it.

The biggest upset in the history of heavyweight championship fights!" Douglas was riding a 6-win streak for the chance to face Tyson, and had extra inspiration for the fight as his mom had passed away just 23 days prior. It was rumored Tyson didn't train as hard for the fight, even though he looked fit. He definitely wasn't prepared mentally for the fight or what was about to happen. Douglas used his 12-inch reach advantage with jabs that Tyson couldn't shake. He also came out aggressive and took the fight to the champ, dominating most of the fight. By the middle rounds, Tyson's left eye was swollen shut. Tyson came back in the 8th with his signature uppercut that sent Douglas to the canvas. It looked like he may pull out the fight, but Douglas got up after a 9-count. Tyson's camp, and promoter Don King, were livid after the fight, saying the count by referee Octavio Meyran was too slow and allowed Douglas to get up. That was the only setback for Douglas. Tyson looked stunned, wobbly and defeated. The 10th round saw something no one expected heading into the fight: Mike Tyson being knocked out.

A devastating uppercut stopped Tyson in his tracks, and Douglas followed with four punches to the head that knocked "Iron Mike" down for the first time in his career. Tyson fumbled with his mouthpiece and was disoriented as he tried to get up in time, but as he stood Meyran called the fight. Douglas was the heavyweight champion in shocking fashion. Despite Tyson's desire for a rematch, Douglas never gave him one. Instead he fought the No. 1 contender, Evander Holyfield Jr. and would lose his title. Tyson would fight four more times before throwing away the prime of his career to a rape conviction, in which he did 3 years in prison. He was never the same fighter again. Here's to you James "Buster" Douglas and the greatest upset in boxing history. Check out more intriguing moments of sports history in Throwback on ThePostGame.

Underdog Buster Douglas knocks out Mike Tyson - Feb 11, 1990 - HISTORY.com Underdog Buster Douglas knocks out Mike Tyson Share this: Underdog Buster Douglas knocks out Mike Tyson Author Underdog Buster Douglas knocks out Mike Tyson URL Publisher A+E Networks In a major upset, Buster Douglas defeats Mike Tyson, the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, in 10 rounds at a boxing match in Tokyo, Japan. James “Buster” Douglas began boxing professionally in the 1980s and was considered a talented fighter, but it was believed he lacked the motivation to become a champion. By contrast, Tyson had become the youngest heavyweight champion in boxing history when he defeated Trevor Berbick by knockout in 1986, when he was just 20 years old. Nicknamed “Iron Mike,” Tyson intimidated other boxers with his fast, powerful punches. Going into the February 11, 1990, match with Buster Douglas, Tyson seemed invincible and was considered a 42-1 favorite to win. However, from the start, Douglas managed to dominate the fight. He was said to have been motivated by the pain of his mother’s death several weeks before the match.

Tyson, on the other hand, didn’t seem to have his heart in the fight, although he knocked Douglas to the ground at the end of the eighth round. Douglas was able to get back up and went on to knock out Tyson and win the fight in the 10th round of the scheduled 12-round match. His victory was considered one of the biggest upsets in boxing history. Douglas’s reign as heavyweight champ was short-lived. After defeating Tyson, he fought Evander Holyfield in October 1990. Douglas lost the fight in three rounds and afterward announced his retirement from boxing, although he staged a brief comeback in the late 1990s. The loss to Douglas was the beginning of a long, downward spiral for Tyson: In 1992, he was convicted on rape charges and served three years in prison. In 1996, he won the World Boxing Council title but lost to Evander Holyfield later that year. During a 1997 rematch, Tyson bit Holyfield’s ear and was temporarily banned from boxing. In 2002, after instigating a pre-fight brawl with Lenox Lewis, Tyson’s Nevada boxing license was revoked.

The match was moved to Memphis, where Tyson lost the fight. In 2003, despite having earned hundreds of millions of dollars, he declared bankruptcy and in 2006, he was arrested on drug charges. Related Videos James Buster Douglas knocks out Mike Tyson - YouTube James Buster Douglas knocks out Mike Tyson Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Uploaded on Mar 17, 2009 Category Boxing Officials Could Overturn Defeat of Tyson - NYTimes.com Boxing Officials Could Overturn Defeat of Tyson By PHIL BERGER Published: February 12, 1990 James (Buster) Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson this weekend and won the world heavyweight championship in one of the greatest upsets in boxing history. But Douglas's victory in Tokyo may be undone by a rancorous dispute over a long count on Tyson's knockdown of Douglas in the eighth round.

Two of boxing's major governing bodies, the World Boxing Association and the World Boxing Council, suspended the result of the fight yesterday pending hearings into the controversy. The third major group that recognized Tyson as the champion, the International Boxing Federation, said it now considers Douglas to be the champion. Tyson's corner had protested that Douglas received a long count, and, according to the W.B.C., a formal protest was later lodged by Japanese boxing authorities. The result of the bout, fought Sunday in Tokyo (Saturday night in the United States), could ultimately be determined by the political and legal wrangling of the governing bodies as well as the considerable influence of Tyson's promoter, Don King. Tunney-Dempsey Recalled But this much is clear: By dominating the fight and knocking out the undefeated and seemingly invincible Tyson in the 10th round, Douglas, a relative unknown, shocked the sports world. And he also apparently upset the carefully laid plans for Tyson's boxing future, including a projected $22 million payday for a title defense against Evander Holyfield in June.

The knockdown in dispute, recalling the famous long count in the 1927 Gene Tunney-Jack Dempsey title fight, occurred after Tyson, battered by Douglas for most of eight rounds, connected on a right uppercut to Douglas's jaw that sent the challenger backward to the canvas. Referee Octavio Meyran Sanchez leaped to Douglas's side and, after a pause, began counting with his fingers so Douglas could see what the count was. Under boxing rules, a fighter is knocked out if he fails to rise before the referee counts 10. Douglas arose as Sanchez reached a count of 9, but tapes of the bout showed he had actually been down for at least 12 seconds. Afterward, Meyran conceded that his count had lagged behind that of the official timekeeper. In any event, a boxer is supposed to take the count from the referee, who is obliged to pick it up from the official timekeeper. ''I wasn't hurt so much,'' Douglas said of the knockdown. ''I was more frustrated.'' Meeting Set for Feb. 21 From Tokyo, Jose Sulaiman, the president of the World Boxing Council, said his group would convene a hearing Feb.

21 in Mexico City to determine the bout's result and the future of the heavyweight division. Gilberto Mendoza, president of the World Boxing Association, said his organization would meet within 10 days for the same purposes. At issue is whether the governing bodies will declare the bout no contest or, a less likely possibility, name Tyson the winner. Another question is whether they would mandate a rematch between the two men. Tyson had been scheduled to meet Holyfield on June 18 in Atlantic City. Holyfield is recognized as the mandatory challenger by the W.B.C. the W.B.A. and the International Boxing Federation. The Tyson-Douglas match was sanctioned by all three of the major governing bodies, but no I.B.F. representative attended the match because of differences with the Japanese boxing commission. Yesterday, speaking from his home in New Jersey, Bob Lee, head of the International Boxing Federation, said he had no problem about the identity of the heavyweight champion. ''The I.B.F. is recognizing Douglas as the champion,'' Lee said. ''He won by a knockout, which was a clear knockout.'' Lee added, however, that if Tyson asked for a hearing, he would grant it.

Sulaiman viewed Douglas's upset victory differently. ''Personally, I feel there were two knockouts in the same fight,'' said Sulaiman. ''Douglas was down for 12 1/2 seconds in the eighth round. Tyson was knocked out in the 10th round.'' Asked whether Douglas had simply taken advantage of a generous count to clear his head, Sulaiman said that Douglas struggled to get up, ''so it becomes a matter for review.'' Sulaiman said that when the round ended, Tyson's corner protested to Mendoza and him that Douglas had received a long count. ''We at the time had no idea that the referee had made a mistake,'' said Sulaiman. ''I did not notice. I just didn't. So I disregarded the protest then.'' Sulaiman said the Japanese commission had presented him with a formal protest after the bout and he had then viewed a videotape of the eighth round 20 times. Sulaiman's perspective on the bout seemed to augur a rematch, an action that could make Holyfield the big loser. For his June 18 match against Tyson, Holyfield was said to have been guaranteed $11 million.

Holyfield's publicist, Kathy Duva, said that when Douglas signed to fight Tyson, he agreed to take on whatever mandatory challenger Tyson would have fought next, and that would have been Holyfield. Douglas's manager, John Johnson, said that because of the actions of King, Sulaiman and Mendoza after the fight, ''there's a strong possibility now that we'll never fight Mike Tyson again.'' Volatile and Illogical

Question: Who knocked Mike Tyson out in Tokyo in 1990
Answer: James Buster Douglas